Arthroscopic treatment of multidirectional instability

Multidirectional instability of the shoulder, described by Neer and Foster, has been treated surgically with the inferior capsular shift procedure. The small number of reports on mid-term outcomes indicate that good to excellent results have been obtained in 75% to 100% of cases. Arthroscopic treatment of multidirectional instability has been previously described. The purpose of this study was to review the results of the arthroscopic capsular shift procedure with a minimum follow-up of 2 years. A retrospective study was performed on 25 patients who underwent an arthroscopic capsular shift performed with the transglenoid technique between January 1990 and December 1993. All patients had earlier not responded to an extensive course of physical therapy. Excluded from the study were patients who had undergone a previous arthroscopic capsular shift or any other procedure, arthroscopic or open, for the shoulder. Average patient age was 26.4 years. There were 20 male and 5 female patients. Sixteen of the affected shoulders involved the dominant extremity. All patients had a history of asymptomatic subluxation that slowly progressed to symptomatic subluxation. Eleven patients had a history of dislocation. Thirteen patients were athletes who were symptomatic in their chosen sport, whereas the other patients were symptomatic in activities of daily living. All patients were examined while they were under anesthesia and had positive results on the sulcus test in abduction with associated anterior instability, posterior instability, or both. Follow-up evaluation was performed with patient interview and examination. All 25 patients were available for follow-up, which occurred an average of 60 months (range 36 to 80 months) after operation. Three patients had episodes of instability after the operation. The average Bankart score was 95 (range of 50 to 100). All but 1 patient had regained full symmetric range of motion by follow-up. Twenty-one (88%) patients had a satisfactory result according to the Neer system. Results of treatment with the arthroscopic capsular shift procedure for multidirectional instability of the shoulder appear to be comparable to those of the open inferior capsular shift.